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Toyota website hacked by a former contractor to steal trade secrets

Toyota representatives have filed a
complaint against former contractor Ibrahimshah Shahulhameed, accusing
the man of violating Kentucky's Trade Secret Act by hacking into the toyotasupplier.com website – utilized by the firm to exchange sensitive information with suppliers – to copy sensitive data and alter software.

It’s well known that some employees or contractors – especially those
who know how your company’s systems work – can cause a lot of damage if
they’re fired or if they part the firm with bitterness. That’s exactly
what happened in this case.

Shahulhameed – an Indian citizen – was working for GlobalSource
IT, contracted by the vehicle manufacturer to maintain the computer
systems of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America
Inc, AutoNews reports.

Apparently, on the night of August 23, the date when he was fired, the
suspect logged on to the company’s systems for more than 6 hours. During
this time, he copied all sorts of information, including some heavily
guarded trade secrets.

Furthermore, he allegedly altered a number of 13 applications present on the website.

According to the complaint filed by Toyota in the U.S. District Court in
Lexington, Kentucky, the organization and its suppliers would suffer
serious consequences if the information accessed by the suspect were to land in the competition’s yard.

Toyota representatives are still trying to assess the full extent of
this incident and before the investigation is concluded, they prefer not
to speculate. On the other hand, they don’t believe that any of the
information possibly stolen by the man has been disseminated.

The court documents also revealed the fact that Shahulhameed was
preparing to head back to India prior to the incident, but he agreed not
to leave the country during the next 14 days.